Warne's Rajasthan clinch a last-over thriller

Munaf Patel bowled a tight last over under pressure as Rajasthan Royals posted a thrilling two-run victory over Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.
Mumbai needed four runs in the final over to achieve a 146-run target, but seamer Patel conceded just one to boost Rajasthan's chances of making it to the semi-finals.
Three wickets fell in the last over, including two run-outs.
Skipper Sachin Tendulkar hit a solid 40 off 30 deliveries and Abhishek Nayar an 18-ball 35 to raise Mumbai's hopes of victory following man-of-the-match Shane Warne's triple-strike, but Rajasthan hit back in the closing over.
Former Australian leg-spinner Warne finished with 3-24.
Mumbai's hopes rested on Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya (16), specialist openers batting in the middle order, after three wickets had fallen for 23 runs but skipper Warne removed both the batsmen at the right time.
Delhi lead the eight-team tournament with 16 points from 10 matches, followed by Chennai (13/11), Rajasthan (13/12), Deccan (12/11), Bangalore (12/12), Mumbai (11/12), Punjab (10/11) and Kolkata (3/11).
The top four sides advance to the semi-finals.
Australian opener Rob Quiney and Indian middle-order batsman Ravinder Jadeja earlier boosted Rajasthan with a 61-run stand for the third wicket off just six overs.
Quiney top-scored with a 40-ball 51 for his maiden half-century of the tournament, while Jadeja scored 42 off 32 balls.

Smith, Sharma star in Deccan victory

Dwayne Smith smashed a brisk 47 and Rohit Sharma grabbed three quick wickets as Deccan Chargers thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 53 runs in an Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
Deccan rode on West Indian Smith's 32-ball knock to post 166-7 before restricting Rajasthan to 113 for their sixth win in 10 matches. Rajasthan have so far won five of their 11 games.
Delhi lead the eight-team competition with 14 points from nine matches, followed by Chennai (13/10), Deccan (12/10), Rajasthan (11/11), Punjab (10/10), Mumbai (9/10), Bangalore (8/10) and Kolkata (3/10).
Defending champions Rajasthan faltered against the pace-spin combination, with opener Swapnil Asnodkar alone offering resistance with a 39-ball 44.
Veteran Sri Lankan seamer Chaminda Vaas (2-19) did the early damage with two wickets in a lively opening spell to reduce Rajasthan to 19-2.
The left-arm paceman trapped South Africa skipper Graeme Smith (one) leg-before and then had Australian Lee Carseldine (eight) stumped by Adam Gilchrist.
Off-spinner Sharma ensured an easy win with three wickets for just 12 runs off three tight overs.
Deccan earlier plundered 58 runs in the last five overs, thanks to man-of-the-match Smith who smashed four sixes in a superb exhibition of hard and clean hitting.
Spinners Yusuf Pathan (3-34) and Ravinder Jadeja (2-26) threatened to restrict Deccan to a modest total before Smith propped up the innings with a 37-run stand for the fifth wicket with Vaas (20).
Off-spinner Pathan struck with his third delivery when he trapped Gilchrist (10) leg-before and then accounted for Vaas and Smith.
Left-arm spinner Jadeja also kept pressure on the batsmen and got a big wicket when he bowled Andrew Symonds, who hit a 19-ball 30.

Rajasthan cruise to victory

There were a lot of similarities in the two teams that took to the field today, apart from the obvious one of both having 'Royal' in their team name. They had both had fitful starts to the tournament, but were coming into the match having built up great momentum, and both were led by leg-spinning legends of the game who were contemporaries.

Anil Kumble lost the toss to Warne, who decided to bowl first on a fresh pitch. Bangalore went in with an unchanged side, while Rajasthan brought in Munaf Patel and local boy Morne Morkel instead of Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Harwood.

The impressive Amit Singh again provided the breakthrough for Rajasthan when he had Wasim Jaffer caught with Lee Carseldine taking a well judged catch at short cover. Last match hero Jacques Kallis couldn't repeat his batting performance and fell to Munaf Patel in the fifth over, leaving Bangalore in a bit of a hole, with the run-rate below 5 and two wickets down. They were dealt a body blow when they lost returning hero Rahul Dravid for a duck. Dravid got a ball down the leg-side and uncharacteristically, instead of tickling it fine for a boundary, got a feather-touch through to the keeper, giving Lee Carseldine a big wicket in his debut over. Bangalore slid further, losing Robin Uthappa plumb lbw to part-time spinner Jadeja, and only a dropped chance by 'keeper Ojha off Warne kept Virat Kohli at the crease and prevented Bangalore from losing half the side before half the overs were up. As it was, they were a none-too-healthy 49 for 4 at the halfway mark, and true to form, they lost a wicket immediately after, when Boucher was bowled by Jadeja.

Jadeja continued to have a dream spell with the ball and snaffled Virat Kohli who's cut only succeeded in finding the safe hands of a tumbling Morne Morkel.

Amit Singh then bowled a beautiful slower delivery - an off-cutter who's turn would have done Murali proud - to bowl the dangerous van der Merwe.

An excellent all-round bowling display meant Rajasthan got Bangalore all out for 105 off the last ball of the innings, with Amit Singh returning figures of 4-0-19-4 and Ravindra Jadeja having 4-0-15-3.

In an innings that lay in shambles from start to finish, the most exciting moment came when No.10 Vinay Kumar attempted a switch hit - you read that right, a switch hit - off Amit Singh in the last over of the innings.

Rajasthan's chase got off to a sedate start, but with no requirement to go slam bang, Smith and Ojha could afford to take their time to settle in. Just when he looked about to explode though, Smith was castled by South African team-mate Kallis.

Rajasthan kept ticking the runs off though, and even though Lee Carseldine was run-out in a bad mix-up with Naman Ojha, the score progressed at above the required rate, reading a comfortable 62 for 2 at the strategy break, with Yusuf Pathan at the crease.

Bangalore did manage to get Yusuf out, it was too little too late, as by then Rajasthan needed just 15 runs to win and had 6 overs and 7 wickets in hand to get them.

This they duly did, with Naman Ojha scoring another fifty and remaining unbeaten on 52 not out off 37 balls, to give Rajasthan victory by 7 wickets and 5 overs to spare.

At the end of the match, another similarity had emerged between the two teams - both stayed true to the form they had displayed in IPL '08!

Turning Point of the Match: A thoroughly professional display by Rajasthan ensured that they had their second successive one-sided victory, with possibly the only turning point being the fact that the toss landed in Warne's favour rather than Kumble's!

Man of the Match: Amit Singh for his sterling bowling performance in just his second IPL match, which really set up the victory for Rajasthan by putting Bangalore on the back-foot from the start.

Smith boundary blitz steers Rajasthan to IPL win

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith staged a boundary blitz as Rajasthan Royals cruised to a 78-run triumph over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League Tuesday.
Smith struck 12 boundaries at balmy Kingsmead as he shared a 135-run first wicket partnership with Naman Ojha that set up the defending champions for a fourth win in eight outings.
The Protea made 77 off 44 balls before being caught at the boundary by Piyush Chawla and the 68-run innings of wicketkeeper Ojha included five sixes and five fours.
Royals made 211-4 in 20 overs and while Punjab recovered from a disastrous start in reply to reach 133-8, the outcome was obvious longer before the final ball was bowled.
Rajasthan bettered the previous highest total this season by 22 runs and the Smith-Ojha stand was also a 2009 IPL record as the round-robin phase of the Twenty20 tournament reached the halfway mark.
No Punjab bowler suffered more than Shantha Sreesanth, who bowled two no balls in the penultimate over and conceded 23 runs, including a six from 33-run Ravindra Jadeja.
Punjab made the worst possible start in pursuit of a 10.60-run-an-over target with Sunny Sohal caught by Rajasthan skipper-cum-coach Shane Warne off the first ball of the innings.
Karan Goel contributed just one run before he headed for the pavilion and when Australian Simon Katich departed in the fifth over, Punjab were 25-3 and staring humiliation in the face.
Skipper Yuvraj Singh established some middle-order stability with a 48-run spell at the crease that included three sixes and three fours, but only Irfan Pathan (19 runs) offered support.
Victory lifted Rajasthan from second last to second on the eight-team standings, behind leaders Chennai Super Kings on net run rate, while Punjab slipped from second to sixth.

Rajasthan snatch thrilling IPL win over Deccan

Rajasthan Royals staged a dramatic fightback to upset table-toppers Deccan Chargers by three wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Saturday.
Defending a competitive 141-5, Deccan looked set for victory when they reduced Rajasthan to 3-3 in the second over but some sloppy efforts in the field saw the defending champions steal a sensational win with two balls to spare.
It was only the second defeat for Deccan from six matches while Rajasthan registered their third win from seven outings to throw open the tournament.
Charismatic all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, tactically brought down to number eight in the batting order, once again did the trick, hitting 24 from 14 balls with two fours and two sixes.
Pathan, named man of the match, came in with Rajasthan needing 49 from 35 balls but reduced the asking rate to a mere 11 from 12 balls.
Abhishek Raut, who remained unbeaten on a 23-ball 36, and Lee Carseldine (39) were the other contributors with the bat.
Tirumalsetti Suman earlier top-scored for Deccan with an unbeaten 41 after captain Adam Gilchrist gave the side a blazing start, scoring a 41-ball 39 with five fours and two sixes.
Suman paced his 30-ball innings intelligently and also shared a rollicking stand of 59 runs off 49 balls for the fourth wicket with Rohit Sharma (38) to rescue the side from a shaky 58-3.
Sharma's knock was laced with two fours and two sixes while Suman hit one six and two boundaries.
Debutant paceman Shane Harwood of Australia took a wicket off his very first ball and also scalped another at the death to finish with impressive figures of 2-25.

Undefeated Pathan powers Rajasthan to IPL victory

Yusuf Pathan was the 62-run hero on Tuesday as title holders Rajasthan Royals defeated Delhi Daredevils by five wickets in an Indian Premier League thriller.
Although a Delhi team boasting a perfect record from three outings made only a modest 143-7 in their 20 overs at Centurion Park, they held a slender edge until the closing overs of the Rajasthan innings.
Pathan hit consecutive sixes in the 13th over, repeated the feat five later and hit the boundary that lifted Rajasthan to 147-5 in 18.3 overs and their second victory in five outings.
In trouble at 64-5 when captain and Australia legend Shane Warne was an unhappy stumping victim for a duck, Royals deperately needed saviours and found them in Pathan and South Africa captain Graeme Smith.
Quickfire Pathan struck six sixes and three fours in his 30-ball spell at the crease while the unbeaten 44 of the more cautious Smith included five fours.
Ashish Mishra was easily the most successful Delhi bowler with 3-34 in four overs while no one suffered more than New Zealand veteran Daniel Vettori, who conceded 32 runs in 12 balls.
Winning the toss and opting to bat, Delhi lost the wickets of openers Gautam Gambhir (8) and Virender Sehwag (16) to Dimitri Mascarenhas in the third over and were indebted to South African AB de Villiers.
He struck one six and five fours off 40 balls at his provincial home ground before being trapped leg before by Warne having completed his half century in perfect conditions on a wicket expected to yield more runs.
Manuf Patel (2-14) returned the most impressive figures in the Rajasthan attack with Mascarenhas (2-28) and inspirational leader Warne (2-32) also making significant contributions.

Kumble sends Rajasthan Royals crashing to defeat

Veteran Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble sent the Rajasthan Royals crashing to defeat when they started the defence of their Indian Premier League crown at Newlands Saturday.
Kumble took five for five as the Bangalore Royal Challengers gained a crushing 75-run win as the champions were bowled out for a paltry 58.
"It was pretty disappointing," admitted Rajasthan captain Shane Warne. "As defending champions we expect better of ourselves. Our shot selection was poor."
Bangalore skipper Kevin Pietersen was overjoyed with the opening win.
"The boys played fantastic cricket," he said. "It was a great team effort and you can't buy Anil Kumble's experience in a shop."
Indian batting star Rahul Dravid made a fine 66 as Bangalore recovered from losing two wickets for no runs in the first three balls of their innings.
Bangalore made 133 for eight, which hardly seemed likely to be a total easily defended, but the Royals made a horror start and never recovered.
They were bowled out for 58, with no batsman making more than 11.
England all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas had New Zealand's Jesse Ryder caught behind for a duck off the second ball of the match and then bowled fellow Kiwi Ross Taylor with his next delivery.
Mascarenhas struck again when Robin Uthappa was caught behind to reduce the Challengers to 17 for three.
But Pietersen made 32 as he and Dravid started a fightback. Dravid carried it on, batting until the last over of the innings as he made 66 off 48 balls with eight fours and a six.
Mascarenhas took three for 20 and he was backed up by Munaf Patel (two for 25) and Warne, who claimed two for 18 in his four overs.
The Royals suffered early blows when opening bowler Praveen Kumar dismissed Swapnil Asnodkar and South African captain Graeme Smith in his first two overs.
Medium-pacer Ryder took two quick wickets, Mascarenhas was run out first ball and Kumble ripped through the rest of the batting.

Rajasthan Royals VS Bangalore Royal Challengers in IPL 2009

Indian Premier League T20 2009 - Watch Live2nd Match : Bangalore Royal Challengers (RCB) Vs Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Defending champion Rajasthan Royals will meet Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening day of IPL. The match is second match in this season's IPL 2009. Rajasthan Royals were the winner whereas the Bangalore royal Challengers were 7-spotted in the whole tournament. Apart from the 1st season both teams have different changes in this season.The match is scheduled as:2nd match: Bangalore Royal Challengers v Rajasthan RoyalsAt Cape TownOn Apr 18, 2009Match scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM Indian time, 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT)

Preview:

History:Rajasthan Royals have won both 2 out of 2 matches in their previous encounters. Royals have won the both matches in the 1st season of IPL against the Bangalore Royal Challenger. In the 1st meet in 2008, Rajasthan won by 7 wickets. The Shane Warne led team won the second one with comfortable margin of 65 runs. Bangalore had never shown their full potentiality in the 2008 season. Unexpectedly, Royals of Rajasthan came top in the table.

News Facts:

Royal Challenger Bangalore : Firstly the team is fully revived from captaincy to to management. Newcomer Kelvin Pieterson wwill be replacing Rahul Dravid from the captaincy. Pieterson is he most expensive player of IPL till now. Jesse Ryder of New Zealand, a hero in test and ODI series against India is too included.

Rajasthan Royals:

Sohail Tanvir who was the best bowler of IPL 2008 will not be playing along with Kamran Akmal and Younus Khan who are also Pakistani players. Tyron Henderson, the mystrious South African has been Included along with Shaun Tait. Inclusion of the three top South Africans will be a advantage for the team. Recently after being on South Africa seven Indian players were send back o India. The players include former Indian regular mrmber Mohammed Kaif also.

Live Action of Bangalore Vs Rajasthan in IPL 2009:In Computer:

There are some official broadcasting links for IPL 2009 season on Internet. Royal Challenger Bangalore VS Rajasthan Royals will shown Live streaming on TVNSPORTS.COM and WILLOW.TV. You can watch the whole Indian Premier League matches LIVE streaming just paying 20$ to 70$. The matches are legal and authorized by IPL and BCCI. The videos are high qualiy and shown world wide.

In TV:

Sony Television has the official broadcasting right of the IPL 2009 season. Rajasthan and Bangalore mach will be shown LIVE set max from 8pm in India. Direct TV and Dish Network will broadcast in USA. In SA super Sports will broadcast the matches.

Highlights of Rajasthan Royals VS Bangalore Royal Challengers in IPL 2009:

The video highlights of the match will shown on various links in internet. Official website of Indian Premier League IPLT20.com will shown the video as well as picture highlights of the match between Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Youtube channel : Youtube.com/IPL may also show the highlights of the match.